I’ve always wanted
to be a writer. At least as far back as I can remember. And last year, I celebrated 25 years of being a professional in my chosen field.
My interest in
books, reading, writing, and the like goes back to when I was a little kid and
would read anything we had lying around the house, whether it was the
children’s books in my room—Billy Goat’s Gruff, Flat Stanley, and Charlotte’s
Web immediately come to mind—to the more grownup stuff in the living room,
including a pair of encyclopedia sets: a standard edition and one based on
science. And I absolutely LOVED the Guinness Book of World Records; I would
pour over that thing for hours, marveling at all the freaks, geeks, and amazing
feats. I still remember the name of the world’s tallest man—Robert Wadlow!
My mom, who introduced me to writers like Tom
Tryon and Mary Higgins Clark, would take me to used bookstores, where I bouight
as many Peanuts paperbacks as I could afford, as well as comic books. We also went
to thrift stores. I distinctly remember buying a stack of Mad magazines at
Thrift Town for 10-cents each—a bargain even back then.
Mom let me order
three items per month from the Scholastic Book Club. I always selected Dynamite
Magazine—a pop culture treasure trove of fun celebrity profiles, cartoons,
puzzles, etc.—and two books, usually a non-fiction title like Ripley’s Believe
it or Not or Strange But True Tales and a novel. This is how I discovered
the greatness of H.G. Wells. War of the Worlds is the first “grownup” novel I
remember reading. Later, I got into Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Rod
Serling, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker, and too many others to count.
In short, I was a
veracious reader from a young age, which played a big role in my opening a pair
of comic book stores with my brother-in-law during the early ‘90s and later
working at Waldenbooks. During my stint at Waldenbooks, which was a lot of
fun—I got to hang out with Charlton Heston, Richard Simmons, Waylon Jennings,
and other celebrities during autographings—I tried writing fiction, which was
met with limited success. I had a few short stories published in small press
magazines, I got a hand-written letter of rejection from The New Yorker asking
me to submit more stories, and I was a quarter-finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard
Writer’s of the Future Contest. This was an interesting and fun time of
creativity, but it hardly paid the bills. (I’ve since collected these stories
in a book called The Arcade and Other Strange Tales.)
In 1997, my
aforementioned brother-in-law emailed me a want-ad from a company looking for
people to write about video games for such vintage consoles as the Atari 2600,
ColecoVision, and Commodore 64, as well as for what were then newer systems
like the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. This began my association with the All
Media Guide, the company behind the All Music Guide and the late, lamented All
Game Guide, which was an amazing website dedicated to describing, reviewing,
and cataloging every video game ever published for every console, handheld, and
computer in the history of forever. I was dumbfounded that I actually got paid
real money to write about old (and new) video games.
Oh, did I not
mention that I’m into video games? I’ve been gaming since 1975 when I
discovered Pong and Midway’s Gun Fight at the local bowling alley, and I’ve
been collecting since way before retro gaming was considered cool. During the
1990s, you could find tons of older games for pennies on the dollar at garage
sales, thrift stores, flea markets, and discount bins at various retail stores.
Working for the All Game Guide kicked my collecting bug into overdrive. After
all, video games were both research and a tax write-off!
In addition to
cranking out a ton of game synopses and reviews, I became an editor with the
All Game Guide. I also began writing for the Comic’s Buyer’s Guide (which older readers may remember as The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom), as well
as other publications. Between these writing gigs and selling stuff on eBay, I
was able to quit my job at Waldenbooks and work at home, which was awesome: I
was living the dream! And changing a lot of dirty diapers as our kids—Ryan and
Katie--were little at the time. Speaking of family time, my wife Charis—a high
school English teacher—was a HUGE help during this point in my writing career.
She’s a fantastic writer and editor in her own right and would look over my
work on a regular basis, offering all kinds of great advice for polishing up my
prose.
Writing steadily for the All Game Guide and the Comics Buyer’s Guide helped me hone my craft to the point where I was ready to write a
book. In 2006, I went to San Diego Comic-Con, where I met an editor with
McFarland Publishers. I left a business card, and three days after I got home,
they emailed, asking if I had any interesting book ideas. This contact and my
fascination with reference volumes and electronic entertainment led to my
Classic Home Video Games series, the first installment of which came out in
2007—right around the time retro gaming started becoming super mainstream.
Later, I wrote more books, including some for Schiffer Publishing, such as the Omnibus books and my
newest, The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1988-1998.
In 2009, I wrote my first cover feature for AntiqueWeek, where I have a pop culture column. My friend—former AntiqueWeek
contributing writer Rick Kelsey—gave me contact info for the paper, which is
obviously still going strong. My first AW article was about video games (the
Atari 2600, in this case), but I’ve written about countless other topics
related to collecting. In 2010, I started a near-decade-long career as a
freelancer for a major metropolitan newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I
loved that job, but they downsized like so many publications during the past
few years and now rarely use freelancers for entertainment-related articles.
The past
two-and-a-half decades have been hugely gratifying careerwise. At least most of
the time. Writing articles for Game Informer, Filmfax, Fangoria, Robot, Native
Peoples, Back Issue, Alter Ego, and other mainstream publications has been a
dream come true. I’ve interviewed numerous celebrities. I called Adam West, and
he answered the phone, “Hello. Batcave.” I had an argument with William
Shatner. I’ve been on tons of press junkets, getting wined and dined at museum
galas and restaurant and bar openings. Getting press passes to comic book conventions is always fun. Even better is being invited to video game
conventions across the country as a guest author, YouTuber, and panelist.
It’s been a good
run, but I’m far from finished. These days, I’m cataloging video games and
writing blog posts for Heritage Auctions, as well as continuing to do
my own stuff. I hope to keep at it in one form or another
for another 25 years!
As always, thanks for reading! And thanks for your support!
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